Mt. Mitchell Challenge

Being sick all week, I decided to put off the Mitchell Challenge, despite having run it 4 times prior.  By Thursday I convinced myself to go out and run it, then that night a hacking cough and voiceless I thought to myself what a bad idea it would be to run up Mitchell in this state.  The weather up there is unpredictable.  I left the decision alone until 3:30am Saturday morning.  I felt great, and the meds I was on were working.  I sprang out of bed, pulled my shizzle together and hit the road.

I had been in bed in and out of work all week, so I was fine on sleep.  I charged my shuffle all the way to Caminos where I met with Jay and picked up my packet.  I knew I wasn't 100%, but I felt healthy enough to get out an run.  I saw Savage and Jeramey at Camions and wished them an awesome adventure.  Later I parked my car at the lake, and walked to the start where I saw many of my mountain running peeps.  I was excited to be out on what turned out to be the best weather I have seen on Mitchell in February.

We took off at 7am, and I struggled to run at a decent pace, but pushed myself early on.  Sickness coupled with poor conditioning forced me to slow my role.  I ran walked up the toll road to the parkway convincing myself that I would turn around, then re-convincing myself I would push on several times.  It was like a ping poing match going on in my head, all while the hacking cough came back.  I was feeling miserable.

When I reached the parkway, the sun shone directly on me, and I could see the summit, and commissary ridge in clear view.  I remembered last years nastiness, and the year prior when over a dozen were shuttled down via ambulance due to hypothermia.  I remembered how much fun I had to splash in the mud and run my tail off of the finish both of those years.  I also knew that had I not gotten sick 3 years ago and turned around at the parkway in 2008 this would be my fifth finish at Mitchell running the 40 miles.  I reached the parkway in 2:49 minutes, faster than what I expected.

Without hesitation my body propelled itself past the parkway aid station and I kept running until I turned right on hwy 128 when I began hiking up that steep road.  The horse trail was muddy, and I moved at a slow pace, but felt the sun give more strength.  I busted a left on commissary ridge when Ashley Funderburk was on my tail, a fellow Sultana.  I speed hiked up to the summit where slabs of ice appeared and I hop-scotched on dry rock riskily away and took off.  I want to say I was at the summit in 4:45, then took for the downhill.  At first I sped down hill, but then resulted to the same slower shuffle-speed hike pace.  The hacking cough never stopped. 

As I made my way down 128 I ran with Liz who then passed me on the parkway not to be seen again until the finish.  She mentioned she was struggling.  I pushed on to my favorite section, the downhilll toll road, of the Challenge.  Usually, if I'm feeling good, this is the spot I blast it.  Not happening this time, but made my way down to Appalachian Way.  It was 7:15 minutes into the run when I hit the asphalt.  I started doing all this math in my head to see if I could break 8 hours.  After running hard for a while I convinced myself it would be 8:01 or longer, so I slowed my role and listened to the thumping of my heart beat.  As I turned right onto a side street, and finally seeing the late I picked up my pace as I usually do, getting really pumped at the finish.  I had two minutes to circle the lake to break 8 hours, and I was determined.  I wanted to finish this run sub 8, albeit stick hacking out a cough.  Running that last 100 yards I remembered the past finishes and how those runs went.  As I veered to the right and crossed the bridge I saw the clock disappointingly read 8:09 and crossed the line in 8:14.  Still happy to have finished in the condition I was in.  Next year will be the penitential finish, and a hammer will need to drop.